America

Bonnie Greer on the impact of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, one of the greatest albums of all time, 50 years after its release Growing up African American and a sheltered Catholic schoolgirl on the South Side of Chicago, Marvin Gaye was the “ooh baby, baby man”. He was the troubadour of our clandestine basement […]

From beach bums to hippies, hair metal rockers to gangster rappers, LA’s musical story has more twists than most. LA is a city of extremes. It’s a place where you either make it big or hit rock bottom, with a huge gulf between the mansions of Bel Air and the tents and shacks of Skid Row, […]

Mexican Coke is now on sale in the UK, but will it ever replace the real thing, with its iconic glass Coca-Cola bottles? My uncle used to buttonhole the sommeliers in expensive restaurants and ask for “a bottle of American Beaujolais”. A so-called ‘Mad Man’ – or Madison Avenue advertising copywriter – he knew the […]

What will happen to police reform in America following the verdict over George Floyd? Another day. Another African American man faced the police. This time it was 20-year-old Daunte Wright, driving his car through Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Wright was pulled over by cops and a female officer shot him dead. It happened 10 miles away […]

The new film The United States vs Billie Holiday is part of a canonisation the singer would have disliked, says BONNIE GREER.

The life of Black Panthers leader Hampton is the subject of a new movie starring Daniel Kaluuya. Bonnie Greer remembers the Hampton she knew briefly You never really go back to your youth. You move on, things happen to you. But your youth is still there, on the edges, and as you get older it moves […]

Bonnie Greer on how American’s obsession with personal freedom makes Joe Biden’s fight against coronavirus even tougher “Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, I’m begging of you please don’t hesitate. Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, ’cause once you’re dead then that’s a bit too late.” And to the tune of her great song Jolene, Dolly Parton got herself […]

Musicians from the US capital city have been more effective than many of its politicians at articulating the country’s problems. By SOPHIA DEBOICK The official presidential playlists issued by Joe Biden – who marks 50 days in office this week – do not necessarily reveal much about his personal musical tastes. The practice, started by […]

Few scandals have provided as vivid a cast of characters as Watergate. Yet the story often overlooks the one man without whom it would simply never have been detected. Washington DC, 2.30am, June 17, 1972, and security guard Frank Wills is doing his rounds at the Watergate Building Complex. It’s been a quiet night. In […]

Recent days have given a clear sign of how the West is realigning after the Trump era and seeking to re-engage with its challenges. Within minutes the picture had become an internet sensation. It showed Angela Merkel and other world leaders standing over, and glaring at, a seated Donald Trump, his hands crossed in defiance. It had […]

We are not in a post-Trump era, just because the man himself has left the White House, says BONNIE GREER. When a family member announced that – finally – they were getting married, all of us were really happy. When we found out that they were marrying a Trump supporter, again, everyone was still really happy. This […]

Social media won’t the same again without Donald Trump, says LIZ GERARD. But the issues he raised online have not gone away. We’ll miss him now he’s gone. Not from the White House, but from Twitter. Mad, bad and dangerous, maybe. But @realdonaldtrump brought us smiles as well as sighs. Who could forget “Covfefe” or […]

The US has entered the post-Trump era. But don’t expect things to get much smoother, says JAMES BALL If the last few years had been a movie, then Wednesday of this week would surely be the last, triumphant scene. Yes, the bad guys had been winning for most of the running time – and the pandemic gave us […]

The highest death toll from coronavirus in the world and an economic fallout leaving millions jobless has compounded the turmoil of a bitterly-divided nation where democracy itself at times seemed in jeopardy. It falls to Joe Biden to begin a repair job on a gargantuan scale when he enters the White House as the 46th […]

The Donald Trump baby blimp has been “consigned to history” – at a museum. The huge inflatable depicts the US president in a nappy and clutching a mobile phone. It took to the skies, above Parliament Square, during protests over Trump’s state visit to the UK. The Museum of London announced in 2019 that it […]

BONNIE GREER reports on the US Capitol riots and what they tell us about modern populism. Was the storming of the US Capitol by the supporters of Donald Trump the beginning of the end of populism? Was this the lethal highpoint, the death knell for the crusade that went under the banner ‘Make America Great Again’? With the banning […]

The president’s removal from the social network could create yet another cultural chasm between Democrats and Republicans. “Hello, I’m new to Twitter, what are you guys up to”, says a tweet purporting to be from someone called John Barron – whose avatar resembles Donald Trump with a photoshopped moustache. On Friday, Trump’s Twitter account was […]

The UK will have to “fight its way to the table” as US-president elect Joe Biden seeks to rebuild American relations around the world, according to a study. With MPs set to debate Britain’s future foreign policy in the Commons on Monday afternoon, a new research paper by Robin Niblett, director of the think tank […]

A set of elections in the southern state next week will shape the future of America. ALBERT SCARDINO explains why Georgia has always been the fulcrum on which the country turns. The race to control the national government in America approaches another mile marker next week with runoff elections in Georgia for two seats in […]

Jason Solomons finds actor Viggo Mortensen in characteristically ebullient mood in their over-running Zoom catch-up. Although still best-known to audiences as heroic Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings films, actor Viggo Mortensen has a reputation in the business as cinema’s Renaissance Man. He acts, writes poetry, composes music, sings, paints, runs a publishing imprint, […]

BONNIE GREER on the breath of fresh air that Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of state represents. President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of state, Antony Blinken, speaks French. This is not unusual for many who join the foreign service of the United States. Former senator and presidential candidate, John Kerry – Barack Obama’s foreign secretary – […]

Joe Biden will be an infinitely tougher prospect for Vladimir Putin than Donald Trump. Yet the Russian president still has time on his side, says JOHN KAMPFNER. George W Bush, not a man commonly thought of as soft, said this of Vladimir Putin at their first meeting in 2001: “I looked the man in the […]

The European Union is proposing a new transatlantic alliance with Joe Biden’s America to repair their strained relationship caused by Donald Trump’s presidency. A draft report sights China’s “growing international assertiveness” as a challenge that needs both the EU and US to work together, even if they “do not always agree” on how to address it. […]

BONNIE GREER on America’s problem with socialism – and the challenges facing The Democratic Party. When I am asked whether the US has ever been more divided than it is now, I used to reply that the republic, after all, had a Civil War. But now, even that catastrophe may stand alongside what may be called […]

Joe Biden is renowned for his experience in foreign policy – yet he has a far from unblemished record. BONNIE GREER reports on what the world can expect Anne Hidalgo, the first woman elected mayor of Paris always manages to catch the moment.  She came to London to congratulate Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim elected mayor […]

Amid the investigations into the Trump administration PAUL CONNEW wonders if the President’s longest-serving aide could be the one to bring him down. In the wake of high-profile sackings that have dogged US President Donald Trump’s administration, the White House Communications Director Hope Hicks (2L) remains in the president’s inner circle. Photo: PA Images – […]

Pulitzer Prize winner ALBERT SCARDINO assesses the mental health of Donald Trump, and the chances of an intervention An increasing number of people believe Donald Trump’s mind has gone missing. According to a new book by journalist Michael Wolff, this includes most of those who work most closely in the White House with him and […]

The war on drugs is no longer just going after the usual suspects. ANDREW PURCELL reports on the opioid crisis gripping the States and the role played by the pharmaceutical industry. The ‘War On Drugs’ has been a cornerstone of US criminal justice since Richard Nixon coined the phrase in 1969, and every president since […]

PAUL CONNEW on the ongoing investigations into the Trump administration’s Kremlin links Donald Trump flew home from his controversial, colourful 12-day, five-nation Asian ego trip straight into the darkening shadow of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian Connection criminal probe. The latest twists of that inquiry are heading, predict well-placed sources, towards the possible arrest of […]

For a true idea of the untold tragedy of gun crime in the US, look beyond the mass shootings to the ‘mundane’ murders. ANDREW PURCELL reports In the early hours of last Sunday, a gunman approached a group of teenagers on a street in Philadelphia and fired eight shots, killing 16-year-old Marquez Houston. A little […]

Is the House of cards about to fall? PAUL CONNEW examines a blockbuster week in the White House as the Russian Connection begins to really bite What did the president know and when did he know it? It was the question that dominated the Watergate scandal until the final curtain of disgrace came down on […]

PAUL CONNEW on the US president’s latest imbroglio It was an under siege US president who presided over the scandal which gave the world the over-used suffix, ‘gate’. Now, another under siege one is responsible for its latest, and perhaps most inelegant to date, application… ‘condolencegate’. And Donald Trump’s latest imbroglio might well prove the […]